Can Cladders

After the autumnal melancholy of Beet, Maize & Corn, Can Cladders is chipper, happy – it’s one of the cheeriest albums in The High Llamas’ catalogue. Head Llama, Sean O’Hagan, wanted to draw from late ‘60s R&B and soul, and you can also hear the influence of Laura Nyro’s beautiful Gonna Take A Miracle collaboration with Labelle. It’s full of unalloyed pleasure, O’Hagan’s steady voice shadowed by a female vocal trio, while the melodies ring out simply, the arrangements finding an eloquence in transparency. There are touches of Robert Wyatt’s solo songs too, particularly on “Sailing Bells” (the lyric ‘Bobby sails the cat / down the Medway flat… and the free men of Canterbury play’ makes it clear) and Dorothy Ashby’s beautiful jazz albums for harp echo throughout. A lovely collection, quietly radical in its own way.